This is part of an article from The Irish Times.
On Saturday, The Athletic caught up with Connor Maseko, the Blackfield and Langley goalkeeper who made the news after being sent off for having a wee during a game against Shepton Mallet last month.
Maseko thought he might pick up, well, a yellow for the offence, so was gobsmacked when the card was red. “It was not like he was brandishing his parts,” said his manager Conor McCarthy. “He was in the hedges having a wee … when you have to go, you have to go.”
It was far from a first, though. A quick, if risky, Google of goalkeeper pees during game produces an astounding number of results, among them Shettleston FC’s Garry Whyte in 2017 (“No red cards until I got dismissed for having a slash!”).
Plenty of outfield players have been caught in the act too, but goalkeepers appear to have a severe habit of being caught short. A good few got away with it, though, like Jens Lehmann and Fabien Barthez, and, most famously, Argentina’s Sergio Goycochea.
Before the penalty shoot-out against Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, he had a wee on the pitch. Argentina won. He repeated the act before the semi-final shoot-out against Italy. Argentina won.
“So, from that moment on I did it before every shoot-out, it was my lucky charm,” he told the Guardian.
And nobody ever complained? “No, because I was very subtle. It was never a problem.” Except, maybe, for players rolling around in the penalty area. Mind you, just desserts.
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“I very rarely feel sexy. Maybe you do, but I very rarely do. There is no Lamborghini on order. My life has not changed at all.”
He might be Chelsea gaffer now, but Graham Potter still isn’t feeling seductive.
(c) The Irish Times